SEGA concedes Sonic criticism has been warranted

The low quality of the first Sonic game for this generation is put down to 'coming to grips with the technology'.

Speaking to GameDaily, Sega of America VP of Marketing Sean Ratcliffe has admitted that sonic titles of late haven't delivered the high quality the Sonic brand deservers, but believes this will change with the upcoming releases, Sonic Chronicles and Sonic Unleashed.

"I think the Sonic next-gen experience in terms of quality, that was relatively early in the next-gen cycle when lots of developers were just coming to grips with the technology. It's not a huge surprise when you try to get something out for launch or thereabouts and the quality is not optimal," said Ratcliffe. "This time around, with Sonic Unleashed, we got a great new engine, the Hedgehog engine, and that allows us to truly deliver the Sonic experience as it arguably should have been on the next-gen."

Ratcliffe also noted: "We can't just stand still with Sonic; we've got to be looking at different ways to develop the character, different genres, and so on. Chronicles is a great example and that's a Western developed title. So again, trying to address the quality, if you're going to put Sonic in his first RPG experience, who do you go to? Bioware, the world leader in making RPGs."

Has Sonic had his day or will the upcoming titles return the Blue hedgehog to his glory days? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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User Comments

Karass

They almost got Sonic back in greatness, believe it or not. The Sonic levels are fun, addicting, and best of all, fast. They control fluidly and, although they don't have near enough challenge to them, can be played over and over and still be fun. The best parts of these levels are when they switch to the sideways view.

On the other hand, the werehog levels have a stupidly deficient combat system, tedious and punishing platforming elements, and overall repetitive level design. The werehog itself literally caused this 8.5-9 game to drop to abyssmal levels. Plus there are far more werehog parts then Sonic parts.

Then the story became all ****ed up because they made it too childish. (HUGE understatement here.)